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I can imagine that from a scientist's perspective, many such things - a cancer diagnosis included - would take a very different cast.

The social realities of COVID were quite a surprise. How naïve the ending of Contagion now seems when, at the time, it seemed to be the most plausible part of the movie.

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Well said.

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What an amazing journey, Bill, thanks for sharing this.

I had a good giggle at this line "the President can tweet as aggressively as he wants, the coronavirus won’t be reading it" ... because it’s funny, and also remembering that time.

I am left pondering whether this journey would’ve been better or worse for me if I had scientific insight. It’s interesting to read the writing of somebody who understands the science and probabilities, which I do not.

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Watching the pandemic was torture. Some time before the WHO declared that Covid was a pandemic, a colleague and I got together to make a quick and dirty prediction about US deaths. We were shocked: Our calculations suggested deaths > 1 million. This was not our view, or anyone else's, at the time. I thought the pandemic would pull America back together. It was awful.

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